2012 was a great year for all things photography, with posts to help you behind the camera, in front of it, when you're shooting, and when you're editing. Here's a look back at our most popular photography tips, tricks, and hacks we shared with you over the last 12 months.

A lot of us hate having our picture taken, but family members and friends insist on doing it anyway. If you freeze and then end up looking like a deer in the headlights in every photo, there's a few things you can do to prevent it from happening. More »

Nearly every modern phone has a camera attached to it and subsequently more and more people are taking photos in public places than ever before. The shot might be as simple as snapping a picture of a parade or as tricky as recording video of a riot. Regardless of the reasons, the rules for photographing in public places are the same. More »

If you're just starting out with a DSLR camera, you're probably pretty overwhelmed with all the different settings you have available. This cheat sheet from weblog Living In the Stills will help you keep it all straight. More »

Photography is a lot of fun, but there are plenty of mistakes to be made-some of which can even cost you a bit of money. The folks over at DigitalRev, a photo-loving community and camera shop, have put together a short video that quickly points out several errors you're probably making and teaches you a few tips as well. More »

The key to looking good in photos? It's all about your jaw, as photographer Peter Hurley explains in this video. Essentially, stretch your forehead forward and down a bit to accentuate your jawline. More »

Ever needed to snap a picture in a quiet building without anyone noticing? Or maybe you need to document misbehavior without getting caught? Taking snapshots on the sly isn't easy, but a few tricks can help you capture a moment without another soul noticing. More »

All DSLRs, and even many point-and-shoots nowadays, can shoot in RAW format, meaning you can save your images as a completely unprocessed file that offers the potential for a higher-quality photo. The downside is that RAW files take up a lot of space and require extra work to process in post. So when should you use this format or when should you stick to space-saving JPEGs? SLR Lounge performed several tests to come to a (mostly) definitive conclusion. More »

Ever wanted to build your own tiny remote monitoring camera to keep track of who's sticking their hand in the cookie jar? The Internet of Things camera is an open-source camera build based on an Arduino that can be set up to snap pictures at regular intervals or even with a motion sensor. More »

Buying a lens isn't a straightforward process. You need to know a fair amount of information to figure out if a particular lens suits your needs. In this post we teach you the basic terms you'll need to know to understand what a particular lens can do and how to choose the right ones for your DSLR. More »

Despite our best efforts to take great photos, we can't always control the light in our images. When you end up taking a picture with an uneven exposure, this little trick can fix the problem in just a few seconds. More »

You can never enlarge and image without losing quality, but there are a few things you can do to keep it looking a bit less blurry. More »

There you have it. It's been a great year for photography, with plenty of camera hacks and photoshop tricks under our belt. Whether your favorite of the year made the list or not, we'd love to hear about the photo tip, trick, or hack that helped you most in the comments. Happy 2012, photographers! And if you want more photography goodness, you can dial your time machine back to 2011, 2010 and 2009.